Reckless Poem Mary Oliver Analysis

The poem that my group chose is “Reckless Poem” by Mary Oliver. I first was first attracted to it by the title, which intrigued me, but then the poem itself was stunning, in language and in content. In its most simplified form, this poem is narration of a person’s experience of self discovery deep in the woods. As you reread, however, individual details make begin to draw attention to themselves. The poem begins with the narrator reflecting that she is hardly herself, but that this feeling is “heaven-sent” (Oliver 3). Normally, if someone isn’t themself, it has a more negative connotation, as if they aren’t feeling very well and are acting differently because of it. In this instance, the narrator discusses this feeling like it makes her feel that she is even more than simply herself, and become almost a force of nature. The second and third stanzas highlight
It mentions one-ness, which shows how, even with all of the power felt in the first three stanzas, she is not overwhelmed but is instead developing as a person. The focus then increases even more to focus on a single ant and the work she is doing, and the narrator reflects on the life of that ant, at first thinking her tiny and unimportant. However, she then changes her views, deciding that “...if she lives her life with all her strength, is she not wonderful and wise?” (17). Though the ant may not have an impact on the world as a whole, the fact that she is doing all that she can to make the most out of her life makes her important. The extreme focus on this ant after the unrestrained disorder of the first 3 stanzas presents a sharp contrast that shifts the mood to one of calm discovery. The narration is now much more controlled as the narrator starts to understand, in essence, life and the world around her. The narrator describes this feeling of self discovery as ascending a “miraculous pyramid of everything”